e
resident in New-England, it was not deemed necessary, as a matter of
courtesy, to drop the conversation. He soon became excited. "Whatever
you may think, Mrs. Child," said he, "the slaves are a great deal
happier than either of us; the less people know the more merry they
are." I replied, "I heard you a short time since talking over your plans
for educating your son; if knowledge brings wretchedness, why do you not
keep him in happy ignorance?" "The fashion of the times requires some
information," said he; "but why do you concern yourself about the
negroes? Why don't you excite the horses to an insurrection, because
they are obliged to work, and are whipped if they do not?" "One _horse_
does not whip another," said I; "and besides, I do not wish to promote
insurrections. I would on the contrary, do all I could to prevent them."
"Perhaps you do not like the comparison between slaves and horses,"
rejoined he; "it is true, the horses have the advantage." I made no
reply; for where such ground is assumed, what _can_ be said; besides,
I did not then, and I do not now, believe that he expressed his real
feelings. He was piqued, and spoke unadvisedly. This gentleman denied
that the lot of the negroes was hard. He said they loved their masters,
and their masters loved them; and in any cases of trouble or illness, a
man's slaves were his best friends. I mentioned some undoubted instances
of cruelty to slaves; he acknowledged that such instances might very
rarely happen, but said that in general the masters were much more to be
pitied than the negroes. A lady, who had been in South Carolina when an
insurrection was apprehended, related several anecdotes concerning the
alarm that prevailed there at the time: and added, "I often wish that
none of my friends lived in a slave State." "Why should you be anxious?"
rejoined the Southern gentleman; "You know that they have built a strong
citadel in the heart of the city, to which all the inhabitants can
repair in case of insurrection." "So," said I, "they have built a
_citadel_ to protect them from their happy, contented servants--a
citadel against their _best friends_!" I could not but be amused at the
contradictions that occurred during this conversation.

That emancipation has in several instances been effected with safety
has been already shown. But allowing that there is some danger in
discontinuing slavery, is there not likewise danger in continuing it?
In one case, the danger, i